Trzebiatów

Trzebiatów, Gryfice district, (German Treptow), site of discovery in 1916 in a gravel mine lying within the town, of a hoard (?) of at least four incomplete gilt silver brooches. The find passed to the town museum and, in due course, to the museum in Szczecin. Only one of the four brooches survived World War II and is now in the National Museum in Szczecin.

Three brooches were nearly identical, with a long, diamond-shaped foot, short catchplate, arched bow with an indentation, and a lower chord. One brooch retained on its head a fragment of the original knob. The feet were stamp-ornamented with concentric rings and half-circles within a beaded border; the bow was decorated at both ends with beaded wire in a convention typical for the Scandinavian →Sösdala style. The foot of the fourth brooch had only a beaded wire border as well as a beaded wire running down its centre and there was on indentation on its bow. The brooches, generally corresponding to forms classified to series 2 group VI of O. Almgren, correspond to type Wiesbaden of J. Werner (1982, p. 228, fig. 3) which became widespread in the territory of the Barbaricum bounded in the west by the Rhine and the Elbe and in the north-east by the Lower  Odra and Scandinavia. The brooches from Trzebiatów may be classified to the eastern group of these forms, stamp-decorated in the →Sösdala style and dating to the first half of the 5th century, i.e., phase D of the early →Migration Period. Interpretation of the nature of this hoard is unclear. On the Baltic seaboard finds similar to the one from Trzebiatów, all containing brooches, are interpreted as ritual deposits that were made in lieu of grave goods. See also: →Świelino, →Kiełpino.

HM

Literature: M. Schultze, Der Fibelfund von Treptow an der Rega, Baltische Studien, N.F., vol. 19, 1916, p. 237-254; K. Godłowski, Okres wędrówek ludów na Pomorzu, Pomorania Antiqua, vol. X, 1981, p. 65-129; J. Werner, Zu einer elbgermanischen Fibel des 5. Jahrhunderts aus Gaukönigshofen, Ldkr. Würzburg. Ein Beitrag zu dem Fibeln vom “Typ Wiesbaden” und zur germanischen Punzornamentik, Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblätter, vol. 47, p. 225-254; H. Machajewski, Z badań nad chronologią dębczyńskiej grupy kulturowej w dorzeczu Parsęty, Poznań, 1992; H.J. Eggers, P. F. Stary, Funde der Vorrömischen Eisenzeit, der Römischen Kaiserzeit und der Völkerwanderungszeit in Pommern, Lübstorf, 2001, p.146-147, tab. 380:37, 7-10.

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  Fig. 1. Brooches from the Trzebiatów find, from H.J. Eggers, P. F. Stary 2001, Tab. 380:37, 7-10.